CLARKSTON, Ga. — The City of Clarkston will return Tuesday night to the issue of its embattled police department, with a work session that will discuss the idea of increasing officer pay as a way to stabilize the force
The work session is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the public can join the forum on Zoom at this link here.
Ahead of the meeting, Councilman Jamie Carroll spoke to 11Alive's Christie Diez about the issues with the police department. He is an advocate for increasing officer pay, and the interview with the councilman is available in the video player above this story.
"It's a crisis," he said. According to the councilman, right now the city only has 11 officers for 21 budgeted positions. "It's a really serious situation for our city, for public safety."
Carroll argues Clarkston officer compensation is "not competitive" and that the department is understaffed the point of having just two officers per shift.
The city's police chief, Christine Hudson, told 11Alive's Jon Shirek earlier this month she was planning to retire soon due to the state of things and where she's at in her career, before she then was demoted just last week, according to reporting by Decaturish.
“It’s really sad,” Hudson told 11Alive about officers leaving the department. “I can’t go into a lot of details, it’s sad, it breaks my heart.”
Hudson had filed an EEOC complaint against the City Manager, Shawanna Qawiy, who could also become a subject of the work session Tuesday night.
For 11Alive's previous coverage on the issues with Clarkston and its police force, see below:
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